Have you ever been serenaded at 35,000 feet by Hoobastank? We bet the answer is no.
But about 125 lucky Southwest Airlines passengers got that opportunity Friday on a Southwest Airlines charter flight from Los Angeles to the Vans Warped Tour in Orlando.
The festivities actually began that morning in Terminal 1 of LAX. At the gate, guests – who were mostly dressed in black rock-themed clothing, with plenty of Vans clothing, from shoes to handbags to hats – were greeted with a playlist of rock music while passengers had the opportunity to perform their favorites. (Shout out to the woman named Gianna who gave an energetic performance of Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Goin Down.”) They were then invited to a meet-and-greet with artists Lolo, Simple Plan, Hoobastank and The Used, all of whom were part of the Vans Warped Tour lineup.
What some passengers – including fans, influencers and journalists – didn’t realize was that all four artists were going to perform on the flight to Orlando. The initiative is part of the airline’s Live at 35 program, an in-flight entertainment program – celebrating its 15th anniversary this year – that surprises passengers with live pop-up shows and music events at 35,000 feet above sea level.
Once in the air, singer Lolo kicked things off somewhere in Texas with a four-song set. At one point, Lolo shared that she “almost didn’t take the job because I’m a nervous traveler and this is the longest time I’ve gone without wearing a seat belt.” (Incidentally, the flight took off about an hour before the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all U.S. flights “due to extraordinary circumstances and for safety reasons.” The buzz on the plane was that our flight was probably one of very few planes flying at that time.)
The aforementioned Hoobastank performed a trio of chants, culminating with their 2004 hit “The Reason.” During this song, singer Doug Robb asked the flight attendants to turn off all the lights and the passengers to turn on their cell phone flashlights, thereby increasing the concert atmosphere inside the plane. The passengers also took part in a lively song.
“Is this the most boring flight you’ve ever taken?” » Robb joked. While crossing the plane, he stole the iPad of a passenger who was obviously shopping online. “I think you should buy it,” he joked.
During his set, The Used frontman Bert McCracken noted the unusual “location” as the flight passed over New Orleans. “This is the weirdest fucking shit I’ve ever done in my life,” he joked. The band played four songs and also turned “The Taste of Ink” into a sing-along. (“Everyone knows the words to that song. It’s called ‘The Reason,'” McCracken joked, recalling Hoobastank’s audience-participation performance.)
Pierre Bouvier from Simple Plan took the stage — word? aisle? – finally, by performing songs including “I’d Do Anything”. After the song, he joked, “Give it up for Mark Hoppus,” the singer-bassist of Blink-182 who is featured on the song. (Hoppus was not present.)
Bouvier joked that it was “super awkward” to perform on a plane, even changing the lyrics to “I’d do anything for you, Vans Warped Tour,” before giving a knowing look and joking, “Really, Nothing.” Bouvier also sang “I’m Just a Kid”, noting that the song went viral on social media several years after its release as part of the #ImJustAKidChallenge Challenge, where users recreated childhood photographs as adults or teenagers.
As the plane began to descend, Bouvier asked the flight crew to turn off the lights, joking that “the flight crew didn’t know they were going to become the plane.” light crew.”
Markus Lloyd is the host of these events, which have featured artists such as Julian Marley (son of Bob), the Plain White T’s, Magic!, Shane Smith & The Saints, Barenaked Ladies, Imagine Dragons, Chris Young and Cassidy Pope. “What’s fun” about these experiences, he told THR, “is that when we’re heading to somewhere fun, like the Vans Warped Tour or Vegas, the plane has already kind of arrived. And so when you tell them they’re going to have this extra thing, it’s like they won the lottery. They say, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to Vegas AND I have a concert there? And that’s when we say: ‘You can’t have that anywhere but the southwest.
For an encore about Friday’s flight, Hoobastank stood up to perform one final song moments before the flight landed safely in Orlando.
Gn entert
